RC Girls Win 14th Straight In State Semifinals
In a hard-fought contest, the Rockbridge County High School girls lacrosse team overcame Powhatan 15-12 in the Class 4 state semifinals on Tuesday of last week in Lexington.
With the win, their 14th consecutive victory, the Wildcats improved to 15-2 and earned a return trip to the state championship game, played on Saturday against Western Albemarle at Charlottesville High School. (See separate story.)
Against Powhatan (17-1), the Wildcats jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first five minutes, with Lola Mulitalo scoring two of her game-high eight goals. Last year, Mulitalo had scored the game-tying and winning goal in RC’s 13-12 overtime win over Powhatan in the state quarterfinals.
This time, the Indians got on the scoreboard when Emma Terry converted from the free position with 4:56 left in the first quarter, and Powhatan scored two more goals before the period ended to cut RC’s lead to 4-3.
Powhatan tied the game 4-4 just over two minutes into the second quarter, but Mulitalo scored on an assist from Josie Caldwell to start an 8-1 run that would put the Wildcats up 12-5 in the final two minutes of the half. Powhatan’s Erica Krauss scored two goals before intermission to cut RC’s lead to 12-7.
In the second quarter, the Wildcats won 10 of 13 draw controls. For the game, Anna Nye led RC with 14 draw controls, while Mulitalo had four.
RC head coach Susan Nye said winning draw controls was key to the Wildcats maintaining the lead. “When we win the draw, we’re running 50 yards, and then we can actually get into our offense and see that efficiency with the offense.”
The Indians were successful in forcing turnovers in the third quarter and trimmed the Wildcats lead to 13-11 by the end of the period. However, Mulitalo scored on an assist from Anna Nye with 9:03 left in the game to give the Wildcats back the momentum, and Mulitalo scored RC’s final goal from the free position.
Mulitalo said getting back the momentum was “very crucial. Anna has an amazing IQ, knowing how to take someone’s defender, and she has perfect placement on her assists. It’s such good momentum for us to keep on going because we know it’s gonna be a tight game.”
Going over that play, Anna Nye said that, earlier in the game, “I took a terrible shot on an 8-meter, and I learned my lesson, and [Coach Nye] told me that I needed to throw it, and I threw it, and I knew that Lola was gonna pull away. I knew she was gonna come through and make that.”
The sophomore midfielder added that momentum “is so important. No matter how much you’re up by, you just keep the momentum strong and you don’t let up. Teams are gonna be like, ‘What are you doing? What is going through their head? They’re not even letting up one bit.’ We just make a small mistake, and then we pick it right back up again.”
On the other side, Powhatan head coach Laura Camp said, “I think momentum’s super powerful in this game, and when you don’t have it, it’s hard to catch up. It’s hard to get ahead.”
A goal by Terry cut RC’s lead to 15-12 with just under five minutes to play, but the Wildcats maintained possession most of the rest of the way and milked the clock to pull out the win in front of their enthusiastic home fans.
Nye led RC with seven assists and scored two goals, while Caldwell added two goals and two assists, Emma Johnson had two goals and one assist. Chipping in one goal apiece were Ruby Goodhart and Emma McKnight.
Leading Powhatan with three goals each were Terry, Krauss and Blakely Dowdy, while Caroline Camp had two goals and Eva Fridley scored once.
Coach Nye said the Indians were tough because “they have an amazing dodgers.” Powhatan has 10 seniors, including three Division I commits, with Camp going to Mercer, Krauss heading to Coasta Carolina, and Chloe Holt bound for Longwood. The Wildcats have one senior committed to playing college lacrosse, goalie Alyssa Hunter, who is headed to Division III school Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg.
Hunter made 10 saves, and her defense helped the Wildcats stay ahead. Mackenzie Halfon made eight saves for the Indians.
Anna Nye led the defense with four caused turnovers, and Braeyln Polly had two caused turnovers. Nadia Gaydos paced the Wildcats with five ground balls.
Coach Nye said the Wildcats’ defense, which held the Indians to two shots on goal in the fourth quarter, was the key difference in the game. “We’re in our second year of our defensive scheme, and these girls, every time, they trust each other, they get the slides,” she said. “Our defense was so solid, and we prevented all of those dodges coming from the top. We had charges. That was the difference. We had some easy scores, but the difference was our defense in getting those good stops.”
Anna Nye agreed with her mother and said the Wildcats had really focused on defense in the practices leading up to the game. “We did [one versus one]. We worked incredibly on defense. … We put so much work in every day into every single practice.”
Anna noted that the Wildcats had alumnae come to practices to help. “With the program being as good as it is, alums come back, and they help us, and I feel like that shows a lot of Rockbridge County. They’re wanting to come back, and they’re wanting to help us. … I think that helps a lot with defense and how much better we’re getting through the season.”
Coach Camp said the Wildcats were a fierce opponent because “they’re physical. They’re fast. They have good stick skills.”
“We got behind early, and we couldn’t catch up,” added Camp. “I feel like we never really had full momentum of the game. They were a way better team today.”
Coach Nye and her players were looking forward to the matchup with Western Albemarle, who had ended the Wildcats’ playoff run the last four years, three times in the state semifinals and last year in the state championship game. Western beat RC 12-10 in the season opener this year on March 18 in Lexington. “Western’s been our nemesis now for five years,” said Coach Nye. “We didn’t have some players at the beginning of the season. We also have some new plays, some new schemes that they haven’t seen, so I think that’s gonna be pretty incredible.”
“I’m incredibly excited,” said Anna Nye. “We went against them last year, and we went against them earlier in the season, and I think we’re ready. We have three practices this week. We are so ready.”
Mulitalo was optimistic the outcome would be different this year. “We’re gonna win,” she said. “We’re confident. We’ve worked hard all year. We’re ready to play them. We’re ready to win.”
